Emmy The Great @ Liverpool Music Week
By
Ross Purdie ||
10 Dec 07
We catch up with Emmy The Great at Liverpool Music Week to talk about being the first with boobs, how she thinks her music is not very good and Channel Dave.
We find Emmy The Great asleep on the chairs when we arrive. She just about wakes up for the interview before she tips a glass of water down herself during our chat. The anti anti-folk star has just released her latest single ‘Gabriel.’
Virtual Festivals: What are your thoughts of Liverpool music? Are you a fan?
Emmy The Great: “I didn’t know that this was going to be a test! I’m a very big fan of Eugene McGuinness and also The Wombats – they’re from Liverpool. I’m from London so I don’t know much, sorry.”
VF: Thats' fine, test over. What have you been up to recently?
ETG: “We are on tour for two weeks and we put a single out yesterday called ‘Gabriel’.”
VF: I saw that in a record shop just around the corner.
ETG: “Was it in the bargain bin?”
VF: It was £2.99.
ETG: “Wow that’s a good price; we sell them for five quid. So that’s a good price.”
VF: Originally you played with just you and guitar. Is that still the case?
ETG: “Today there’s going to be a guitarist, a backing singer and a violinist, but usually there is a drummer and a keyboard player, but the drummer has gone to Australia. I've always had someone playing around me, doing something, and then there were gradually more people hanging around. Finally I thought why don’t we just get a drummer involved.”
VF: How are you finding being on the road?
ETG: “We’ll it’s only been one day but I’m very tired, very sick of my touring partner (manager Laura, sat opposite - we think she's joking). She smells terrible. She takes her shoes off in the car.”
VF: Do you ever drive then?
ETG: “We’ve been sharing the driving. I am the better driver in terms of aggression and getting us places, but maybe in staying under the speed limit it would be Laura.”
VF: Are you a bad back seat driver?
ETG: “No if I’m not behind the wheel it’s like I’m not there anymore. I’m usually sat watching channel Dave. I really like Whose Line Is It Anyway? I really want to know what happened to that Ryan Styles because he did that Hotshots Two and 'Who's Line Is It Anyway' and then disappeared.”
VF: You’re originally from Hong Kong. Is that a big part of who you are musically?
ETG: “I guess it helped me. It formed who I was because I was such a loner for 12 years.”
VF: Did you go to one of the international schools?
ETG: “No I went to a Chinese school. I was very conspicuous. Ironically, I was the first to get boobs and I was much taller than everyone else so I was a loner. I guess it has made me more introverted than I would have been if I’d grown up here.”
VF: You came over when you were 12. Was it a big shock?
ETG: “No it was awesome. I’d been here a lot because my dad’s English. Suddenly everyone talked the same language as me and they liked the same music as me. It was awesome – it was amazing.”
VF: What sort of music were you into?
ETG: “I was listening to some of it today actually. Third Eye Blind who are this surf rock band. I was also really into the first Offspring album, The Lemonheads, Smashing Pumpkins. I’m not going to say Weezer. There was a Tower Records in the middle of Hong Kong and there were a handful of punk bands from the main city where I lived. I used to fancy those boys, so I would go to Tower Records and be like: ‘Oops I’ve dropped my limited edition Japanese import,’ but I never met any of them. But I did get off with one of them in England when I was 15 and it was like kissing a hero. It was like getting off with the high school football star.”
VF: Who is this guy?
ETG: “He was in a band called Lubby Nugget. They were this awful dead-end ska band that used to play all the shows all the time. I wonder whatever happened to them.”
VF: You’ll have to find out. Were you playing music when you were in Hong Kong?
ETG: “I was playing a bit of guitar. My dad taught me guitar, but he really stunted my growth because he stuck to the same chords and he was like: ‘You only need these three; you don’t need any other chords. You’ll always be able to play any song.’ So I literately only played three chords until I was 18.”
VF: So you could have been like Remi Nicole.
ETG: “Aww. I could’ve been the next Remi Nicole.”
VF: When did you start to play more complicated chords and tunes?
ETG: “On the last tour probably. No, when I was 18 I joined a band and I didn’t really play guitar that well. After a while I realised we were really bad and actually we were embarrassing our families.”
VF: Did you force them to come along and watch?
ETG: “No, by just existing we were embarrassing everyone, including ourselves. So we separated and went solo.”
VF: Did that prompt you to be quite good?
ETG: “No, I’m still not very good. I've just played a lot. I’ve never practiced ever.”
VF: You keep putting yourself down but you are actually quite good…
[Emmy then tries to drink some water and pours it down herself prompting a fit of giggles.]
ETG: “Did you see that? I just poured water down myself. I just missed my mouth.”
VF: You’ve got a drinking problem. When people say you’re good and buy you’re records does that surprise you?
ETG: “I don’t think you should quote this but I think most people who buy my records must be stupid. I was on 6Music the other day and the guy had to play my song because it was on the playlist. He said something really rude about it and also said it must be a bad day for the setlist and I thought, I respect this fellow. He’s not going along with popular opinion – he can see it for what it truly is. Me and him could have a real chat about music.”
VF: Do you have any ambitions to become amazing?
ETG: “Oh yeah, I’d like to be good.”
VF: Have you got quite a good following?
ETG: “Yeah, I have a really big family.”
VF: And are they your fan base?
ETG: “Yes. They’ve got all my t-shirts and the same last name as me.”
VF: So what can the people of Liverpool expect when they hear you tonight?
ETG: “My music.”
VF: How would you describe it?
ETG: “I would describe it as the sound of someone who is trying really hard.”
VF: I read somewhere you've been taggered anti-folk. What’s all that about?
ETG: “That is a movement in America that died off ages ago. It’s also in Brighton and they definitely wouldn’t include me.”
VF: Why?
ETG: “I read on a forum somewhere that they think I’m a real sell-out, but honestly it’s not me. It’s a very political music group.” Find out more on the Emmy The Great MySpace page.
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